How long does the world have to wait before all the surplus oil sloshing around gets mopped up and prices find an equilibrium point that represents balanced supply and demand? Would you believe it if someone said that might be just a quarter and a bit away?

On the supply side, all bets are on shale to bail: there is no hope of output cuts from OPEC, let alone a coordinated action with other major producers such as Russia, amid a stubborn quest for market share.

As if the recent oil price dive to the lowest level in six years wasn’t enough to keep industry nerves on edge, the current price volatility is proving just as hostile to producers as sliding margins.

After bottoming out in late January at $45/b, NYMEX crude had recovered to $60/b by May, in a correction now widely seen as premature as it was overcooked. Bears pointed to the stubborn and growing glut of global oil supply hanging over the market.

If the rebound was quick, the subsequent fall has been just as dramatic and the double-dip in oil prices has been more severe than many predicted.

If the round of second-quarter upstream conference calls showed anything, it was that operators have been humdingers in recent months: incredibly competitive, ruggedly hard-working and totally determined to match their operating costs to slipping oil prices, with a bit left over for profit.

And they have succeeded beyond their most extravagant forecasts. The cost of producing the once-perceived “high-priced” unconventional oil patch has now fallen, in some cases, to per-barrel breakeven prices pretty much on par with an extra-large delivered pizza with all the works, including tip.

When it comes to pursuing new offshore oil and natural gas production, the Atlantic Coast is proving to be a tough target. In this week’s Oilgram Newscolumn, Regulation and Environment, Gary Gentile explains what’s currently happening — and what’s not happening — off the Eastern shores and why.

Mexico’s debut bidding event in Round One of its energy reform is now history, and resulted in what was widely agreed was a poor showing.

Now, the post-mortems have begun, both within industry and the Mexican government, which openly acknowledged it needs to do a better job of listening to industry’s concerns about contract terms that might have attracted more winners had the sticking points been addressed to begin with.

Shell has become the first major to take proper advantage of the low oil price, taking out a company that it has long been interested in buying: BG. And the reason is a good one: not growth for its own sake but using BG’s assets to help it achieve its own goals faster. The transaction is underpinned by BG’s asset value, it said.

In the US, March often means spring break: children and young adults have a week off school and classes and families take the time to travel, have some adventures in their hometowns, or just try to catch up and catch their breath as the year continues its hurtle forward.

You may have thought we were taking a break from The Oil Big Five, since this entry is coming midmonth instead of at the beginning of March. Thankfully, that’s not the case, and we’ve caught our breath enough to share this listing of five big oil topics our oil editors and analysts worldwide think are among the most important. Leave us your thoughts in the comments below — are there others you want recognized, or would you like to chime in support that one of these topics is affecting you somehow? — and drop us your feedback on Twitter with the hashtag #oilbig5.

After a much-celebrated turnaround in increasing oil production, Colombia reversed course last year. In this week’s Oilgram News column, Regulation & Environment, Chris Kraul talks with a key Colombian official on reversing that slide.

Upstream operators that released 2015 preliminary capital budgets a few months before the year-end holidays have returned to the surgical table for more fiscal liposuction on already slender frames. Despite this, they and other producers insist they can continue to grow oil production this year, and for some, growth will be in the double-digits.

Last week alone, small producers Halcon Resources, Sanchez Energy and Concho Resources all slashed projected 2015 capital spending by 48%, 29% and 33%, respectively. In some cases this was the second revision from preliminary figures announced before oil prices began their steep descent to current levels below $50/b.

They are not alone. Even the bigger players such as Continental Resources, a big Bakken Shale producer, said in late December its capex would be 41% lower than contemplated in early November when prices were still in the high $70s/b range, while ConocoPhillips will shave 20% off its budget compared to last year.

Harvest Natural Resources is one of the last remaining US independent operators in the Venezuelan oil patch. But as Starr Spencer notes in this week’s Oilgram News column, At the Wellhead, Harvest has had a difficult time divorcing itself from an increasingly strained partnership with the country’s state oil company, PDVSA.